Rebirth and Second Chances
by Phoenix089
Summary: Reborn into a modernized galaxy of Kingdom Hearts, when two old friends meet and are given the opportunity to light flames that had never been given a chance to burn before, will they take it? Or will they let it pass them by? AkuRoku. Full summary inside


Hey theres! I am back with another random story!

I can't guarantee the quality since … Well, I'm the only one who's edited this thing. I think it's alright, but I'd appreciate any feedback!

And now without further ado, I give you "Rebirth and Second Chances" (After an extended summary and warnings).

_**Summary:**__ Several years have passed since the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, so long in fact that everyone, including the nobodies, have been reborn into a modernised galaxy of Kingdom Hearts. Some retain memories of their past lives, while others do not. Most, however, gradually regain their memories as they age. Having been born into this world, two friends have been given a second chance, a chance to meet once more. But will this chance pass them up or can they rekindle flames that never had the chance to burn before?_

_**Warnings:**__ AkuRoku centric (In other words- Boy love between Axel and Roxas), Possbile OOC … and one really random one sided pairing. I think that's all though ..._

_**Spoilers: **__Snippets of the game, if you haven't played it yet .  
_

_**Disclaimer: **__I don't own Kingdom hearts. If I did … There wouldn't have been mere _hinting_ at this pairing … And a lot of other things wouldn't have happened._

XXX

A sixteen year old male tossed about in his bed, his normally spiked blonde hair matted against his forehead, sweat beads trickling their way across his brow.

For several weeks now, he had been haunted by dreams about an unnamed someone, someone who always appeared to be shrouded in a mist so thick he could barely see two feet in front of him, let alone the person whose presence he could feel. Still, something deep inside him knew he was _meant _to know this person, and the sense of familiarity that radiated off this persons presence simply enforced this feeling.

The dreams were always different; sometimes the familiar voice would be laughing with him, speaking in a tone that suggested they were exceptionally close, in what sense Roxas knew not. He did know, however, that for some unknown reason he didn't want to let go of that soft and tender voice; a voice that at times caused goose bumps break out all over his body, and at others caused irrepressible shivers to run down his spine.

On other nights though, the voice was speaking to him in a way that suggested the person had suffered an intense pain and betrayal. Whenever he heard this harsher voice shouting at him in an anguish that only he seemed to be able to pick up on, he would always wake up covered in sweat and a find hollow feeling in his chest, tonight being no exception.

Roxas felt his body being thrown out from under him and fell heavily to the unusually soft floor beneath him, groaning slightly on impact.

"Do I ring any bells yet?!" the voice snarled at him, a chakram grazing past him as he forced himself to get back up, a peculiarly key-shaped weapon held tightly in his hand as he ran towards the hazy figure, not even understanding why it was they were fighting, only knowing that he felt as though this was the one person in the world he didn't want to be fighting with.

"Roxas! Time to get up!" a voice noisily interrupted, and Roxas opened one cerulean eye to glare at his twin sister Naminé, who simply smiled at him. "Come on silly, time to get up!"

"I heard you the first time," Roxas sighed, pulling his blanket up over his head. Why did he have to get up today anyway, it was a Sunday, he was _supposed_ to sleep in on days like today!

"Roxas, if you don't get up now you're going to be late for your meeting with Olette and the others," Naminé's voice sang reproachfully.

In an instant, Roxas leapt up from his bed and was dashing for the shower. He'd completely forgotten today was the day they'd agreed to work on that independent study assignment! If they didn't have it ready when they returned to school tomorrow Professor Larxene would have their heads for breakfast!

An hour later Roxas made his way downstairs, still pulling on his fingerbands, chequered wristband and shoes while Naminé sat there giggling at him as he struggled to do so.

"You know, if you don't get that assignment done, you'll get on the Professor's bad side, and she'll destroy you," she said unhelpfully.

Roxas looked up sharply in the middle of trying to jam his foot into the remaining shoe, the words sounding familiar to him for some reason.

"_You get on their bad side and they'll destroy you!" a desperate voice resounded in his ears._

"_No one would miss me," Roxas said in an attempt to appear nonchalant as he walked away from the one person out of the group he actually cared about._

"_That's not true…" the man behind him began vehemently, trailing off as Roxas' footsteps fell loudly on the pavement, echoing as he continued to walk away. "I would." And though he heard them, heard the emotions soaking those two words, Roxas continued walking away without a second glance._

"Hello? Earth to Roxas?" Naminé sounded, her sketch pad in one hand, as she stood in front of him, waving a delicate hand over his eyes, a worried look in her own.

Roxas shook his head and finished pulling his shoe on, his mind echoing the interaction over and over as he said goodbye to Naminé and made his way to 'the usual spot'.

Once he'd closed the door, Naminé sighed. "Hurry up and remember Roxas," she muttered before returning to where she'd been resting, sketching idly.

"Roxas you're late!" the voice of Olette snarled venomously as she pointed an accusing finger at him from where she was sprawled on the floor, poring over what appeared to be numerous sheets of paper.

"Sorry Olette," Roxas said, rubbing the back of his neck in an apologetic gesture.

"Don't worry about it. We're almost finished anyway, right Olette?" Hayner spoke up from where he was sitting, sucking on what appeared to be a Sea-Salt ice-cream, one of Roxas' personal favourite flavours.

Upon noticing how the blonde was eyeing the ice-cream, Hayner guarded his ice-cream as he held out another for Roxas, who took the treat with a simple 'thanks' before he moved over to sit down on his usual crates.

"What was the report on this time?"

"The pollution in the river in comparison to the past five years," Olette supplied, with a shrug. While the report itself sounds like it would have taken a considerable amount of work, especially since they'd only been given the week to do it, in reality it was quite simple because Olette's father was a biologist, something that came in handy a _lot_ of the time when the four of them were doing Biology.

"Great, the Professor will love it … She'd love it more if there were sharp things involved," Roxas said, the group cracking up at his last comment, a comment that was only amusing because it was true.

"Well actually … The amount of syringes and such found in the water have also increased, so it's perfect for her," Pence added, still laughing lightly before breaking into more hearty laughter with the rest of the group.

Another night, another dream, and again Roxas was tossing and turning in his bed, the bedsheets wrapping themselves around his body defiantly as if trying to hold him down.

Roxas jumped suddenly at the voice to his side. "Ax—" he said, almost cautiously and the dim red haired figure in front of him finally met his eyes.

"You really do remember me this time?" then, quite suddenly his calm voice changed to a bitter and pained tone, "I'm SO FLATTERED. But you're too late!"

Quite suddenly a wall of flame burst up from behind him, the wall encircling him and the red haired individual, and Roxas regarded this person with a sense of regret as he summoned his keyblades.

Roxas awoke with a start, and sat up in his bed, attempting to catch his breath as he looked out the window to his side, the pale light of dawn making the rooftops glimmer with a dull red light.

"Who are you?" he asked no one in particular. Why was he dreaming of this unknown person night after night?

A few short minutes later, his alarm made its presence known throughout the room, and Roxas turned off hastily as he began to get ready for school. There was no point in even trying to get to the shower, Naminé purposely woke up before him so she could get the shower and she would then spend at least an hour in there.

"Roxas? You're unusually quiet this morning," Naminé pointed out, peering over at him in worry as they made their way to Twilight High School, where they would meet the rest of the gang.

"I'm fine, why wouldn't I be?"

"You called out half a name last night. So who's was it?" Unseen by Roxas, Naminé's mouth was curled into a shrewd smile. Even if Roxas didn't know who's name it was … She knew.

"Excuse me?" Roxas said dully, completely confused.

"Yeah, what was it again? Ax … Ax something," Naminé pressed on, curious to see how her 'brother' would react.

"It's nothing." Roxas replied, his cheeks turning a pale pink. "Look, there's Hayner, why don't you go say hello?" Roxas said, smirking slightly. It was a known fact amongst the group that Hayner had a huge crush on Naminé, and strangely Roxas found didn't mind, even though she was his sister and Hayner was his best friend.

"Morning guys!" Olette cried, waving her hand high in the air as they approached, Roxas smiling lightly at how Hayner's cheeks turned a light pink as he stammered a hello to Naminé.

"Mornin'" Roxas said, trailing off slightly as he noticed someone with flaming jagged red hair in the teacher's parking lot, but within the next moment, they had disappeared again. Roxas uncertainly held a hand to the left of his chest, feeling his heart racing beneath his fingers. What was this … this overwhelming feeling, and urge to find the person with the bright red hair? "Ahm, I'll see you guys later!" Roxas added, suddenly dashing off in the direction of the school building, Hayner's confused shout of "Roxas?" barely heard.

Only pausing once he'd walked inside the doors of the campus, Roxas leant against the wall to the side of a staircase with his eyes closed. Without realising what he was doing, Roxas held his hand back against his chest, and wondered with confusion; why was his heart beating so damned fast?

Cracking his eyes open and breathing deeply in an attempt to calm his pounding heart, Roxas didn't even notice the body that was walking up from around the corner as he stepped out of his hiding place, only to be sent sprawling to the floor instead.

"Oh shit!" he heard the person curse in a faintly familiar voice as they bent down beside him, "You alright …?" they said, trailing off as Roxas turned his head swiftly to glare at this person whoever they were, when his heart stopped for a moment.

Kneeling to his side was the person he'd seen a few moments ago with flaming red hair. This man also had curiously bright green eyes, and was peculiarly dressed in a black overcoat, black pants and knee high black boots with silver trimmings despite the fact that it was a warm summer's day. All this barely registered in Roxas' mind, however as he found himself eyeing the small triangular tattoos on the man's cheek bones, the man looking down at him in shock, shock that was quickly replaced with amusement however.

"What's-a matter? Cat got your tongue?" the man joked, smiling down at him in an almost fond fashion. That voice … Why was it so damn familiar?

"I'm fine," Roxas snapped as he rose to his feet and dusted himself off before retrieving his bag from where it had been sent skittering along the floor, looking back at the man curiously. He was standing with one hip jutting out to one side, one hand resting against the other hip as he continued eyeing Roxas, an amused smirk still on his face.

"Watch yourself next time, got it memorized?" the red head said, grinning in a cat like manner as he said his favourite phrase, and before he knew what was happening, Roxas' mouth was moving of it's own accord.

"Axel," he found his voice saying in a distant tone, and as he said the name Roxas felt his heart wrench with unimaginable pain.

"I'm sorry?" the man asked, looking at the blonde with confusion etched on his young face, confusion and something that almost looked like hope. For a second there he thought he'd heard the blonde mutter his name.

"Nothing, sorry," Roxas responded quickly, his cheeks heating up slightly as he hurriedly made his way up the stairs, his heart still beating incredibly fast and the pain he'd felt moments ago still strong in his mind.

"Axel?" he repeated to himself, completely confused as he walked into the empty classroom. He didn't even know anyone by the name of Axel, so why would he suddenly say the name?

Three lessons had gone by, and Roxas was feeling no better nor any more enlightened since his run in with the mysterious red-haired man. Sighing with frustration, Roxas entered his biology classroom, only to stop dead in the middle of the door way for a few seconds.

There, standing where his usual Professor usually stood, was the red-haired man that had spurred these confusing reactions. The man looked over and surveyed Roxas with what appeared to be a painful recognition, and as Roxas made his way to his seat, neither of the two broke eye contact, something unknown flickering beneath both cerulean and emerald eyes. Roxas' clearly asking "Why do I feel like I know you?", while something much deeper than simple recognition shimmered in the others eyes, and it appeared that this interaction did not go unnoticed by the class however as they all looked up at Roxas in bewilderment.

"Ahm, what was that?" Pence asked softly as Roxas sat down, to which he simply shrugged. How could he have given the boy a proper response when he didn't know himself?

A few minutes later, the tattooed individual at the front of the room cleared his throat and the class quickly quietened, uncertain about this fill-in.

"Alright then, listen up. Larxene was called away on some urgent business and asked me to fill in for the day," he began, and Roxas couldn't help but notice that a few of the students breathed a sigh of relief, while others appeared hopeful that they'd get an easy lesson. "But don't think that just cos she's not here, you won't have to do your work. She left me a list," he said, picking up a piece of paper from the desk and brandished it with distaste, "of what you're all meant to be doing and strict orders to make sure you actually do it. Now I don't particularly want to be burnt to a crisp by her, and I'm sure no one else in this room want's to face her wrath so, let's just get this over and done with, huh?"

Already the class were visibly warming up to this man and his charismatic personality, to the point of where Roxas could faintly hear some of the girls behind them whispering about how cute this substitute was, to which Roxas found himself smiling sardonically, his fists unconsciously tightening as the red haired man began walking up and down the aisles, handing out worksheets as he went, having also given a sheet of paper, to the boy in the front row furthest to the right, that was to rotate about the room for the students to write their names on.

Once this sheet had cycled around the room, the man had collected it from the desk furthest to the left in the front row, glancing over the sheet and smiling as he looked up at them all, "Good to see no smart arse names on here. She's got you trained well then, hmm?"

"Uhm, 'scuse me sir?" a timid girl from the middle aisle asked, tentatively raising her hand, speaking once the red head had focused his attention on her, "S-sorry, but you didn't tell us how to address you."

"Oh, right. The name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" he said, flashing the same grin Roxas had seen earlier.

While a lot of the class seemed to whisper "how cool!" and "why can't _he_ be our teacher?", Roxas felt the blood drain from his face and his eyes widen in shock as he took note of the name. This guys name was Axel? Axel … The same name that had suddenly formed itself on his tongue when he'd met him earlier?

"Well, what're you waiting for?" Axel said, raising a delicate eyebrow as the class continued to stare at him, "Get going! That should last you all lesson you know," and the class promptly began their worksheets, which turned out to be five pages long. Once they'd clearly begun on the worksheets, Axel looked over the instructions Larxene had left him with sigh, before scanning the list of names.

"Olette, Hayner, Pence and … Roxas," Axel trailed off, saying the later name with a noticeable tenderness to his voice as he smiled lightly, almost painfully. "I'm meant to collect some assignment from you four?" he asked, looking up into the crowd, his eyes singling Roxas out as he gazed up at the blue eyed boy expectantly.

"Here, you take it," Olette said, shoving the document on Roxas' desk from behind, an action that broke him from his reverie. He'd been thinking about how … strangely natural it felt to hear his name roll off Axel's tongue. He could feel such a familiar aura radiating off the red head, and yet Roxas knew he'd never met him before so why? Why did he seem so familiar?

Slowly walking down the steps, Roxas could feel numerous sets of eyes on him, all watching as he made his way to the desk that Axel was sitting at quite comfortably with his booted legs propped up on it, his lips pulled into a comfortable smirk.

"There's the assignment," Roxas found himself saying as he dropped the sheets of paper on Larxene's desk, his throat felt as though it was constricting and his heart had once more quickened in pace. Why was it whenever he was near this man he'd only just met his heart would beat so rapidly, and his chest would feel as though there was a weight on it?

"Thanks … Roxas…" Roxas shifted uncomfortably as Axel looked him over once more, a strange depth to his eye, something that made Roxas' face feel as though it was burning, and when Axel noticed this he couldn't restrain a gentle laugh.

"Best go do that worksheet huh? Larxene would slaughter you if you didn't finish it, right?"

Roxas nodded slowly, feeling as though he'd heard the sentiment before, coming from this very same person, possibly even about a similar thing. When he returned to his desk, the feeling of eyes boring into his back ever present, Pence looked over briefly before looking away again with a slightly confused expression, scribbled something down on a sheet of paper and slid it over to Roxas's desk.

_Roxas,_ it read, _you realise you're blushing right?_

Roxas felt his face flush noticeably as his eyes widened slightly, looking over his shoulder at Hayner and Olette for confirmation, both of which only offered apologetic smiles that agreed with Pence. He was blushing? Why on earth would he be blushing? A million reasons ran through his mind, but he simply didn't know.

What he did know, however, is that throughout the rest of the lesson, his heart was beating painfully hard against his chest and that familiar feeling of dread, regret and pain had returned, both of which intensified whenever Axel and his eyes would meet. In addition, his face had felt hot throughout the whole lesson, and this frustrated him more than anything. _Why?!_ He kept asking himself, why would he react this way when meeting someone new? It made absolutely no sense!

Thankfully, Biology had been the last subject of the day, however and when the bell rang, everyone made haste to get out of the room. While Axel's presence made a considerable, and noticeable, difference to the icy atmosphere that seemed to hang in the room, it was still an overwhelmingly 'Larxene' atmosphere.

Roxas, unlike the rest of the class, found himself lost in thought, staring out the window when the bell rang, and as such was still sitting there when the room had emptied save for himself and Axel.

"What are you waiting for? The next life?" Axel asked, suddenly leaning against the desk beside Roxas, snapping him out of his thoughts only to place a hand to his head as a painful shock suddenly shot to his temple.

"_Let's meet again in the next life," Axel said, his bent body heaving with his laboured breathing._

"_Yeah, I'll be waiting," Roxas replied a little sadly. Now that he finally remembered everything, he and Axel had to part ways? Fate was a harsh bitch._

_The remark earnt a relieved and hopeful smile from the red head before he scoffed, "Silly. Just cos you have a next life," and then he faded into darkness, leaving the blonde to face his demons alone._

Slowly, Roxas moved his hand from his temple to his cheeks instead, rather surprised to find the residue of tears. Then, almost reluctantly, he forced himself to look up at Axel, who was standing there looking completely bewildered with his eyebrow cocked, regarding Roxas with uncertainty, an uncertainty that morphed into worry as he noticed the tears on the blonde's face.

"Axel," Roxas said softly, pushing himself up from his chair before uncharacteristically throwing himself at Axel, locking his arms around the elder's waist. "Axel, Axel, Axel," he was repeating, as though it were a mantra, the tears still cascading down his cheeks as he buried his face in Axel's chest.

Hesitantly, he felt Axel's arms return the embrace, an action that only seemed to increase the flow of tears, and Roxas contented himself by tightening his arms around Axel's form.

"You remember, huh?" the soft voice asked from above him.

Roxas mutely nodded, before saying, "I waited. I waited, Axel…" not caring how different he was acting compared to their past lives. In their past lives, Roxas reasoned, they didn't have hearts, and now that they did, the emotions were overwhelming.

"I know," and with that Axel placed his thumb under Roxas's chin, forcing the blonde to look up at him, before he wiped away the tears fondly, a gentle smile on his face. "Thankyou." How different this Axel seemed, being able to smile so easily and truly mean it, but he was Axel nonetheless.

Blushing at the smile, Roxas hid his face one more in Axel's coat and realised he still had his arms wrapped around the red head's waist, and vaguely contemplated removing them. But as he felt Axel tilting his chin up once more, he instinctively pressed up with his tip toes, bringing their lips together for a gentle kiss, a kiss held the promise of so much more.

"I guess 'best friends' was never the right term for you two then?" Naminé spoke from where she was standing in the doorway of the classroom, a knowing smile on her face as Roxas turned scarlet, while Axel rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I guess not," he said simply, taking Roxas firmly by the hand and leading him down the stairs. In that moment, Roxas was thanking whatever twist of fate allowed them this chance, allowed them the chance to finally be true to what their non-existent hearts had always wanted, allowed them to be something 'more'.

XXX

Yeap, we're done now. Thanks for reading and if you have the time, let me know what you think!

Phoenix089


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